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Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

thebodyintl.com

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Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#91

Post by superkuh »

FabHK wrote: post #82
TexanFeller wrote: post #42

The Heaven’s Gate cultists have been spreading dangerous misinformation for 20 years? They MUST be deplatformed! Why on earth do Google, Facebook, Hacker News, their web hosting and DNS providers allow their dangerous messages to be spread? /s

On a non-sarcastic note, it could well be that this and similar cults are banned on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, which is perfectly fine. They still have their own website.

If heavensgate happened again today their hosting provider would definitely "shun" them.

Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#92

Post by scoot »

shazeubaa wrote: post #62
fckthisguy wrote: post #61

Subject matter aside, the author of the article uses the term URL a few times but doesn't seem to know what it means. Curious for an "internet historian".

He also repeatedly states the events of 1997 happened 35 years ago. Heh.

More likely "She" (or rather "They" since there are two authors).

> also repeatedly states the events of 1997 happened 35 years ago.

You misread. The article says 25 years, except this:

There are images from the news that stick out in the minds of people over 35 who watched the story unfold in real time.

which refers to people aged around 10 or above 25 years ago.

Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#93

Post by KennyBlanken »

ianai wrote: post #51
jmwilson wrote: post #6

Title should be clarified to match the article. Not everyone associated with the cult has perished. Several ex-members are alive and some remained close to the cult in a way that's hard to describe, and took on the maintenance of the website. HBO's series, Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults, is highly recommended. It is a fascinating, tragic, and ultimately humanizing look at the cult, through the eyes of observers and…

Right. I didn’t realize they were tech trailblazers back in the day until that documentary.

I think there's a decent chance they inspired Cowboy Bebop's episode about the tech cult SCRATCH: https://cowboybebop.fandom.com/wiki/Brain_Scratch

...although Japan has had several really wacky cults that also could have inspired the story.

Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#94

Post by erwincoumans »

np_tedious wrote: post #56
jmwilson wrote: post #6

Title should be clarified to match the article. Not everyone associated with the cult has perished. Several ex-members are alive and some remained close to the cult in a way that's hard to describe, and took on the maintenance of the website. HBO's series, Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults, is highly recommended. It is a fascinating, tragic, and ultimately humanizing look at the cult, through the eyes of observers and…

Thanks for this comment. I was initially impressed that the site stated up that long with no human maintenance. Also, now I want to watch that documentary

Me too, and I wondered how long they paid the server and domain name cost in advance.

Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#95

Post by SSLy »

genewitch wrote: post #23
insan1d wrote: post #18

Fun fact, back in 2017 when I was a junior in highschool, I would meet this friend of mine often at her house. She lived pretty far into this gated community that was right on the edge of where Rancho Santa Fe ends. I really don’t remember how the topic came up, but she told me that the mansion where the Heavens gate cult had killed themselves was literally a 5 min walk. I knew about the cult, but I never knew it all…

I witnessed two police and retired police shootings in California. I also knew the 16 year old that axe murdered his entire family in vista, ca. I chose to leave the state, and now the worst I see is a dead deer 3 times a year. Chances are something unsettling has happened within 500' of you, some time in history. Don't let that weigh you down, in thoughts or body.

>Chances are something unsettling has happened within 500' of you, some time in history.

Meanwhile in Europe…

Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#98

Post by erwincoumans »

donatj wrote: post #79
rpeden wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't surprise me too much. My completely embarrassing website from the 90s has been running on the same host and subdomain with zero work done by me to keep it running: http://boglin.iwarp.com I think I edited the HTML once since 1999 to add a Google Analytics tag because I was curious if anyone ever visited it.

Your ICQ number is lower than mine by a little bit, jealous.

My ICQ is even lower (1508789) but I envy his old skool website.

Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website

#100

Post by caddemon »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #90
jmwilson wrote: post #6

Title should be clarified to match the article. Not everyone associated with the cult has perished. Several ex-members are alive and some remained close to the cult in a way that's hard to describe, and took on the maintenance of the website. HBO's series, Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults, is highly recommended. It is a fascinating, tragic, and ultimately humanizing look at the cult, through the eyes of observers and…

As an atheist Heaven's Gate claims are as legitimate (and outlandish) as those of Christians or Buddhists, whose to say they aren't reborn on an alien planet? So let's call it "assumed perished".

Catholicism strictly forbids suicide, I grew up being taught you could go to hell if you commit suicide. I assume it is similar for the other mainstream branches of Christianity. I'm no longer religious, and I understand where you are coming from questioning what ought to qualify as a cult versus a religion, because there are some cases where the difference isn't too clear (besides membership numbers). But any belief system that is actively encouraging suicide has clearly crossed a line.
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